Saturday, July 13, 2013

Hawaii power companies to deactivate oil plants, ramp up Renewables by 2016

After a year of research and deliberation, three major Hawaiian power companies are now putting up plan to deactivate a total of 226 MW of oil-fired generating units, convert remaining baseload plants to cycling duty, and substantially ramp up use of renewables by 2016.

Indeed a great move by the utility companies.

Renewable energy projects in Oahu, Hawaii. Image credit: UCS-USA

The Hawaiian Electric Companies serve 95% of the state's 1.2 million residents and in the next 5 years plan the followings:

To deactivate the Honolulu Power Plant and two of four units at Maui’s Kahului Power Plant by 2014,

To deactivate two units at Oahu’s Waiau Power Plant by 2016,

Also includes Hawaii Island’s Shipman plant, which has already been deactivated and will be retired in 2014,

To fully retire all units at Kahului Power Plant by 2019. The oil-fired units make up 14% of the utility's owned generation.

Focus on renewable energies

The companies will instead accelerate development of utility-scale renewable energy projects, including solar and wind. Plans include:

Hawaii's renewable portfolio standard requires that the companies meet 15% of net electricity sales with renewable power by 2015, 25% by 2020, and 40% by 2030.

The three companies met a record of 13.9% of generation with renewables in 2012 i.e., installing 111 MW of nameplate utility-scale wind that year. By the end of this year, the companies expect to meet 18% of generation with renewables.

Hawaiian Electric Co. (HECO) also plans to convert or replace generating units, which have not been deactivated, to use “cost-effective, cleaner fuels,” including renewable biomass or biofuel and liquefied natural gas.